LITTLE ROCK (AP) - Most of the tens of millions of state dollars normally set aside to pay for brick and mortar projects in legislators' home districts should be allocated to meeting essential state needs in a budget crisis, Gov. Mike Huckabee says.

Whether by legislation, resolution or word of mouth, legislators will be asked as early as this week to forego funding most local projects and apply money from the biannual General Improvement Fund to help cover costly state obligations.

Also this week, discussion resumes in committee on Huckabee's plan to regroup 53 state agencies and commission into 10 new state departments and a bill to limit damages in civil lawsuits.

The House Committee on State Agencies and Governmental Affairs heard nearly five hours of testimony last week without taking a vote on the governor's government reorganization proposal. Skeptical members wanted more details on how the plan would work than the administration could provide.

The Senate Judiciary Committee has held six meetings on the tort-limits bill so far, with no guarantee that a vote will come this week.

Recession-related budget cuts totaled $227 million last fiscal year. Last week, acknowledging a slower-than-expected recovery, Huckabee announced a $62.3 million shortfall and corresponding cuts in current spending through June 30.

Revising the state revenue for this year automatically reduced revenue estimates by nearly $93 million for the 2004-2005 budget cycle.

The General Improvement Fund would be about $63 million over the next two years, according to legislative estimates. The money is normally split equally between the governor and the Legislature, and allocated to some of the more than $100 million in projects proposed each legislative session.

Huckabee said that, given the state's budget crunch this year, it would be irresponsible to throw that money at local projects over which the state has no control while education, prisons and the Medicaid health program for the poor, elderly and disabled go unmet.

"I would think that the most responsible thing we could do is to first take care of the true obligations out of general improvement that we have," Huckabee said, such as repaying prison bonds. "Then we should determine if there are things that are critical needs of a capital nature.

"Beyond that, we ought to definitely use it to try to preserve Medicaid programs and things that should be more important than sidewalks in somebody's hometown that ought to be the responsibility of the local community," the governor said. "Anything other than that is recklessly irresponsible this year."

Rep. Marvin Parks, R-Greenbrier, said he had discussed the idea with the governor and likely would decide this week the best way to formally propose the change.

Parks could set out the proposal in legislation which, if passed, would set the change into law. He also could introduce a resolution to be voted on by the House and Senate, a non-binding document that still would express the desires of bond chambers to budget conferees who will set spending priorities late in the session.

He also could offer a motion in the Joint Budget Committee, which considers all state appropriations. The panel already is operating under an agreement to hold state budgets for the next two years at current spending levels unless agencies can justify increases.

Last week, Rep. Jeff Gillespie, D-Danville, raised the specter of another change in the way the General Improvement Fund is handled.

Evoking memories of a bitter fight over money during Huckabee's first legislative session in 1997, Gillespie said the Legislature should take control of the fund.

Under Gillespie's scenario, Huckabee would seek the Legislature's approval to allocate money for capital improvement projects he favors.

"That would give the governor some input. Obviously, the other alternative is just let the Legislature decide," he said.

Gillespie said there had been no organized discussion about his approach, just casual remarks between some legislators. There is no conspiracy against the governor, he said.

Governors traditionally controlled the entire General Improvement Fund and divvied out money to local communities at their discretion prior to 1997.

That year, after Huckabee had ascended from lieutenant governor, term-limited House members and then-Senate bigwig Nick Wilson led an effort that wrested control of the fund from Huckabee.

The heavily Democratic Legislature also overrode nearly a dozen Huckabee vetoes of appropriations and other legislation. Among those was a bill allocating $750,000 to an obscure new program to provide lawyers for children involved in custody battles.

The program led to a government-wide investigation and eventually to federal corruption charges against Wilson and nine others. Wilson was convicted of tax evasion charges and later pleaded guilty to siphoning nearly $2 million from government programs. He is serving a 70-month prison term.

In 1999, Huckabee and the Legislature agreed to a 50-50 split of control of the General Improvement Fund, and that arrangement has held since then.